Manny Pacquiao has one date in his diary and it is not the one where he is boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pacquiao removed one roadblock to that superbout in impressive style as he was an overwhelming points winner against Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium, Dallas, in the early hours of Sunday morning, retaining his WBO welterweight title in the process.
Mayweather challenges Shane Mosley for the WBA welterweight title in Las Vegas on May 1. Nine days later he runs in the Filipino Congressional Elections for Sarangani province. Beyond that the future is unclear. Three years ago he failed in an attempt to be elected for Congress.
He has said that he will box on whether he wins or loses in the election, but that could be something he is saying to ensure people do not use retirement talk as a reason not to vote for him. A guarantee of a Mayweather fight would get everyone voting for him.
Clottey, from Ghana, was never likely to be a walkover. He boxed behind a high guard and picked his punches well, landing short sharp shots, but it did little to the wave of non-stop punches that was coming the other way.
Pacquiao would march forward pounding away with both fists, and while many shots caught the Ghanaian on his arms and gloves, plenty sneaked through and he was content to bash away to the body.
By the fifth, Pacquiao eased off the whirlwind as he attempted to tempt Clottey out of his shell, but by the halfway point, Clottey had lost every round comfortably and was told to “take a chance” by his corner.
Saying and doing are, of course, vastly different things and, while Clottey, the former IBF champion, continued to land with the odd single shots, he spent most of the time curled up behind his guard, while Pacquiao teed off.
Clottey’s best moments came when Pacquiao appeared to take a breather. In the ninth, when Clottey landed a decent combination, Pacquiao actually gave him a brief round of applause. His second reply was to hammer another combination through Clottey’s defences.
Again in the tenth, Clottey got through with an uppercut and a combination, but they proved to be a breath in a typhoon as Pacquiao somehow upped the pace again to a level the Ghanaian just didn’t know existed.
The eleventh was a barnstormer, as Clottey went for broke, but at the end of the round Clottey seemed on the verge of defeat as Pacquiao’s relentless attack swept over him. Clottey deservedly reached the final bell, but only took one round on two scorecards and failed to register on the other as he lost a wide unanimous decision.
Whether there is encouragement for Mayweather is difficult to tell. Pacquiao looked easy to hit at times, but Clottey failed to put a dent in him. The American has a tricky task with Mosley first, then one can only hope the bout that is supposedly too big not to happen will happen.
